Emby recording programs already existing in Library

[ChrisHammond56 4]

I know there are few threads on this topic, however, I think my use-case may be slightly different. This may not be an issue with Emby, but I would like some feedback. Perhaps it would help if I explain my Recorded TV process.

Once an episode has been recorded, I run a script that removes the adverts from the .TS file and creates an MKV file. The MKV file gets copied to an archive file (on another volume) and then the original .TS file is removed, and replaced by a symlink to the archive folder for the MKV. This is an example of the archive folder

This is an example of the RecordedTV folder:

Each night, the Library scan is run (updated contents and metadata), and the following morning, I can see the episode appear in the Recording library and also in the LiveTV->Recordings section. The file can be played and everything is fine.

However, when checking the schedule, I can see that the episode is still listed to be recorded. This is what I see. 

1. Series is selected in Emby, with the 'do not record episodes....' ticked.

2. This is for a single channel only and not 'Any Channel'

3. I can see that some episodes are not selected for recording. These seem to be the duplicates that have appeared in the scheduled list, that would already have been recoded. S3E5@19 Feb is selected and then the duplicate S3E5@20 Feb

4. I see scheduled recordings for episodes that already exist (S3E5@19 Feb for example).

As you can see, S3E5 is scheduled to be recorded even though it's already in my library. Can you provide any reason why 

From Recordings Library:

I have not attached any logs as yet, as I wanted to get your initial feedback as to why I am a fool and not configured it correctly.

 

[Luke 37178]

Hi there, please attach the emby server log from when it was recorded. Thanks 

[Carlo 4330]

@ChrisHammond56 Did you see Luke's request for logs?

[ChrisHammond56 4]

Hi All. Yes I did see the request for the logs. I didn't want to waste Luke's time, so I continued investigating myself. One thing I did find was that my old recordings had a '.' as the separator compared to a whitespace. 

This is the confusing part. Emby did not recognise the episode had already been recorded (I can accept this as the '.' separator is in play). However, after the recording had finished, the older existing file has been removed and the new recording (with white spaces) has been dropped in its place. I would have expected to see both files.

I can see a folder listing with episodes that have recently been recorded by Emby with whitespaces and the remainder of episodes have the '.' separator. 

At that stage, I thought it might just be an issue with the symlinks, so I deleted them and attempted to recreate. However, disaster, as deleting the symlinks, actually deleted the files. So, no fault of Emby's, but I now have an empty recordings library (with no recent backup).

For now, unless you want to investigate why Emby wasn't matching the files with the '.' then you can close this case.

Chris 

[Luke 37178]

HI, if it's named with a supported naming convention for tv episodes then it shouldn't matter. It could be symlink related though.

[ChrisHammond56 4]

Your simlink might be valid. If Emby is checking for an existing episode without including symlinks, then its possible the incorrect condition is hit. As my system is based on Linux (Synology) I know the filesystem is VERY fussy (CapITOLs must be adhered to), so I wonder if Emby can handle symlinks?

Thanks

[Luke 37178]

1 hour ago, ChrisHammond56 said:

Your simlink might be valid. If Emby is checking for an existing episode without including symlinks, then its possible the incorrect condition is hit. As my system is based on Linux (Synology) I know the filesystem is VERY fussy (CapITOLs must be adhered to), so I wonder if Emby can handle symlinks?

Thanks

It's more a question of the .NET runtime file API's handling symlinks, which is what Emby Server is built with. Right now it is limited but improvements are coming:

https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/24271

[ChrisHammond56 4]

I have re-architected how my recording library is accessed. I now have recordings on a separate volume/folder. I am still seeing scheduled recordings for ones that are already in the DB. 

I can see that on Friday, Emby will record this episode S1:E1:

Emby Library shows S1:E1 and E1:E2 exist and have been watched:

Folder Contents:

I am no longer using SymLinks. I am however, using comskip after the recording has completed, and converting to MKV (from TS). I thought this may have been the issue, but Emby is listing that episode as MKV anyway, so the change must have been picked up by the library?

I have rescanned the whole recorded tv folder and updated all meta-data. However,  Emby is still insistent on re-recording. 

One Note: It would seem that Emby does not record any other showings of that particular episode, once it has recorded the first time. Example: S1:E3 and S1:E4

So I am unsure why Emby is re-recording episodes. It's almost like Emby is ignoring the folder contents!

I will attach the logs on Friday once the recording has completed. Any initial thoughts would be appreciated.

[Luke 37178]

Please attach the emby server log from the time of the recording. Thanks.

[ChrisHammond56 4]

Hi @Luke Here is the requested log. As you can see the episode was recorded. I can also see that E01:E02 is now in the process of being recorded as well:

In this folder, is the .duplicate file. My comskip script backs up any .mkv files to preserve the original, and then uses the new .ts file and writes back out to the new .mkv file. The E01:E02 will be processed the same way once the recording has completed...

 

embyserver (11).txt

[Luke 37178]

Does the series folder still have it's nfo file?

[ChrisHammond56 4]

Yes. Attached. Thanks

tvshow.nfo

[ChrisHammond56 4]

This is the nfo from the season folder as well (season 2) as shown in the post earlier in this thread.

 

season.nfo

[Luke 37178]

OK I think I see the issue. Let's see how the next build compares. Thanks.

[ChrisHammond56 4]

Would you care to elaborate on the suspected issue? Just curious, that's the Engineer in me.

[Luke 37178]

For some reason your series doesn't have the external ids it was created with. Who knows why, but we should be more resilient to that.

[ChrisHammond56 4]

Hi @Luke I have reviewed the season.nfo I attached and can see that the IDs are missing.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<season>
  <plot />
  <outline />
  <lockdata>false</lockdata>
  <dateadded>2022-04-09 12:00:12</dateadded>
  <title>Season 1</title>
  <year>2013</year>
  <sorttitle>Season 1</sorttitle>
  <premiered>2013-01-13</premiered>
  <releasedate>2013-01-13</releasedate>
  <seasonnumber>1</seasonnumber>
</season>

I checked today, and I see that (for season 1) the season.nfo has been updated:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<season>
  <plot />
  <outline />
  <lockdata>false</lockdata>
  <dateadded>2022-04-09 12:00:12</dateadded>
  <title>Season 1</title>
  <year>2013</year>
  <sorttitle>Season 1</sorttitle>
  <tvdbid>509959</tvdbid>
  <premiered>2013-01-14</premiered>
  <releasedate>2013-01-14</releasedate>
  <uniqueid type="tvdb">509959</uniqueid>
  <seasonnumber>1</seasonnumber>
</season>

I was in the process of writing a script to fetch the missing uniqueid's from TheTVDB.com (I have an account and key), but I cannot seem to find the search pattern to get the missing data. Can you inform me of how you got the season info, as there is a lot of chatter about TheTVDB not providing season info anymore, however, series and episode data is available.

In the example above, if I search TVDB for the ID 509959, it doesn't come  back with any valid matches. So, what's the ID referencing? 

The reason I am asking is that I would like complete metadata and using .35 Beta still has duplicate scheduled recordings. Not sure if your changes made it into that release or not?

Thanks

[Luke 37178]

The season metadata doesn't really matter, it's the series level. Please try 4.7.0.36 and see how that compares. Thanks.

[ChrisHammond56 4]

Ok. Don't seem to see .36 on the update page in Emby or on the Emby Download site or on github. Any specific link for synology

emby-server-synology7_4.7.0.36_x86_64.spk?

Thanks

[Luke 37178]

It should be up soon. Thanks.